A period of time ago, we watched this movie “The Handmaid’s Tale” in class. I found it extremely terrifying, and at the same time relief about the fact that I do not live in such a world like this. This particular movie is set in a polluted utopia, where all the coloured people and infertile woman are being brought away to elsewhere. Only the “White” men, fertile women, or wives of the important men could remain in this world. The setting of this movie was very gloomy, therefore enabling the terror of the movie to stand out. To prevent citizens from escaping, there are searchlights and guards everywhere. One would usually fail in the process of escaping, and the punishment: either they are shot dead on the spot, or hung in front of the whole community. Citizens are not allowed to leave freely, have romances or enjoy themselves. There is absolutely no freedom.
This is exactly the same as that in The Giver; the citizens in that community are assigned to do jobs that they are presumably good in, children are chastised if they use the word “released” lightly at play. They are not given the freedom to choose, including their choices of words.
Both societies are also terribly rigid. In “The Handmaid’s Tale”, males are not checked if they are fertile or blamed if their handmaid’s do not get pregnant. If a handmaid is not able to get pregnant in a certain period of time, they will be blamed. In “The Giver”, it is against the rules for pilots to fly over the community, and no matter how minor a mistake one makes, he has to go through the standard apology phrase. If things are said to be done in a certain way, they have to be done in that way, no changes can be made to the situations. Both communities are full of rules and every aspect of life has guidelines.
Uniformity is also seen in both societies. In “The Handmaid’s Tale”, handmaids wear red gowns, ministers’ wives wear blue gowns, and ministers wear a certain black suit. All are given a small specific bed. Hence, they are only differences between the people of different ranks but uniformity throughout people of the same ranks. In “The Giver”, the month a child is born in does not matter at all. All newborn children turn one in December. All children go through a ceremony each year, for changes to be made to them physically. Every child’s change is the same until a certain age. Genetics Scientists also turn the gene that enables one to see colours off. Hence, there is no difference between the citizens because there are no colours to represent their individuality and preferences.
I am really glad that we watched this movie, read “The Giver”, and analysed the themes in both stories because they made me appreciate my imperfect world a lot more and the fact that I have the freedom to make my own choices. It is the motivation to perfect the imperfections in our lives that keep us going and giveus meaning in our lives. We are also given chances even if crimes are committed, for example the “Yellow Ribbon” program where second offenders get a second chance in life as long as they are willing to repent. However for their communities, once a minor transgression is made, they will be tortured or even killed. Also, in our world we are allowed to show our affections and emotions openly. Hence, we are able to enjoy life at a higher level. Therefore, I feel that I am very fortunate to be born in this world.
This is a picture of a person holing a pill, bringing us back to the book The Giver, where Jonas and his entire community, those who have undergone puberty, had to take a pill everyday to control their Stirrings, which in other words are their sexual desires. A pill is taken to curb their natural sexual desires, which is very unnatural and artificial. In this community, there is a dilution of real feelings. They have to tell members of their family dreams, and reflections of the day, and the hiding of these emotions is against their set of rigid rules, therefore, there is no privacy allowed for each person. Even such private and sensitive issues have to be told to all members in the dwelling to identify the treatment needed. Compared to our world, their feelings are very shallow and straightforward.
This picture depicts a scene of a big happy family celebrating Christmas. There is immense warmth, love and happiness in the atmosphere, connecting us to the Giver’s favorite memory. The strongest feeling in that memory was love. As soon as Jonas got the whole memory, he liked it and treasured it very much. That was the feeling he wanted very badly but was strictly banned by the community by making its citizens eat pills every morning, to control their feelings and sexual desires. After going back to his dwelling, Jonas even asked his parents whether they loved him, but instead of getting a desired answer, his parents lectured him on precision of language. The word love is so general that it is considered obsolete. In our world, this word “love” is used extremely frequently to express a liking for however minor a thin is. This memory also marked a turning point to his obedience to the rules and parents. He threw the pills away, for the Stirrings to come back, for the pleasurable feeling of love to be returned to him, once again.
This picture depicts an important authority holding a syringe, ready to inject a person. This picture connects us to a scene in The Giver when Jonas’s father was preparing to inject the lighter of the twins with a deadly solution. He was so willing to, indirectly, kill this newborn that is innocent, and has not even experienced life. He felt no guilt, sorrow for the baby, but ironically happy for it while committing the act. This act provided Jonas a sense of utter frustration, that everybody in the community was so unfeeling, cruel and emotionless, and made it a turning point for him. He decided that he could no longer return to his actual community and face those people for another minute, thus the start of the plan to escape.
This is a picture of Jonas’s first memory; of him sliding down a hill covered with snow. This sledding journey symbolizes Jonas’s experiences he will undergo during his training sessions with the Giver. The sled is also red in a colour, symbolizing the new world filled with colours, feelings and thoughts. The snow accumulating on the runners of the sled symbolizes the difficulty the Giver has when carrying all these memories. The delight of sliding down the hill symbolizes how Jonas was excited to receive new memories form the Giver. However the sled can also be treacherous, thus symbolizing how Jonas felt when he first received a memory of pain. The pleasures and pain received from the memories are related to the experience of sledding down the hill. At the end of the novel, Jonas finds a real sled waiting for him at the top of the hill, therefore symbolizing his entry into a world where colours, sensations, and emotions exist in reality, not just in memory.
Courage, partly adapted from Daniel Vango
The courage I need
I need the courage to control my instincts
The courage I need to face my fears
I need the courage to see the future
The courage I need to influence my companion
I need the courage for my companion to think positively
The courage I need to overcome my pain
I need the courage to continue the journey
The courage I need to survive
I need the courage to convince myself to do something
I have to prepare myself for any thing that comes up!
This poem is about a person going through a period of difficulty, where he needs to summon all courage he has to handle all the challenges that he will face. This particular person is extremely determined not to give up but to persevere till the very end. Courage is the utmost important element he needs to complete his journey, to succeed in this challenging moment in his life.
The poet starts each idea with “the courage I need”, thus showing that courage is acute in this case. In the poet’s first idea, he says he needs courage “to control his instincts”, to control his fears of failing in this arduous and emotionally draining journey. The poet is extremely afraid of not reaching his destination, thus needing the courage to “face his fears” and thus overcome them, of not succeeding and the dangers lurking before him.
The poet needs the courage to overcome his strong doubts of this journey, he needs to think positively, to generate positive energies, to have the confidence to ensure that he would be able to succeed, “to see the future”. It is the brain that controls one’s thinking and the thoughts that controls one’s actions and behavior. If one thinks in a negative manner, that person would have a higher chance of failing than a person who thinks positively because the brain is telling the person to give up, there is absolutely no motivation for the person to continue persevering, but only the temptation to give up, hence summoning all reason to give up, losing all meaning in continuing the journey, hence the poet needs a great deal of courage to “overcome his instincts”.
In the next collective idea, the poet not only needs courage to influence himself but also his companion, to “think positively”. If he is the only one having a positive thinking and the companion having a negative thinking, the poet’s companion might fail, making the speaker lose all reason to continue the journey if his friend who has been traveling with him all these while isn’t with him. Usually if one’s partner is demoralized, the other would gradually be in the mindset and feelings of the other person, and too be demoralized. Therefore, the poet needed the courage to encourage his companion, to ensure that they would succeed. He would lose all motivation to keep on persevering till the very end, and too will fail. Hence the need to encourage his companion.
In the third collective idea, the speaker may have hurt himself while going through the journey, hence feeling very tired, sick, and thus not feeling in the mood of carrying on in the journey. He would be easily drained, in terms of energy and emotionally. When one is sick or in pain, one is usually in constant need of rest and comfort, always feeling very uncomfortable, with no mood at all to fight on in undesirable conditions. Thus making the speaker easily demoralized, losing the attitude to continue to fight on, the motivation to continue persevering, till the very end.
Lastly, the speaker has finally summoned all his courage to overcome his extreme fears and doubts of the journey, feeling the motivation and spirit to continue, to press on, feeling his self esteem and confidence raise as he treks through the tough period of time, telling himself that he had to survive, to continue the tiring journey, to see what is beyond the horizon, to lead a better life.
To achieve that, he was going to have to give his best shot in the elements that stood before him and to overcome them with the enormous courage and confidence he had.
What courage the poet had when going through what he had at that point in time is exactly the same as what Jonas in The Giver had to have and experience when escaping the dwelling and on his journey to elsewhere with Gabriel on his father’s bicycle. This was greatly unacceptable in the community and Jonas would be subjected to harsh punishment and serious chastisement if he were ever found. The enormous bravery Jonas had was unimaginable. Not only did he have to fend for himself, but also Gabriel, who was scheduled to be released the next day if he was not saved by Jonas.
Jonas recognizes this concept of courage when he understands that he would be the only one who can save Gabriel from being killed. When Jonas takes him in the middle of the night, he demonstrates incredible courage that nobody in the community had, even though he did not receive many memories on courage form the giver.
“I need the courage to control my instincts”, this short phrase written by the poet is evident in Jonas’s escape. He knew that he and Gabe would have a very low chance of succeeding, that they were not prepared at all for the harsh environment they were going to face. Even though Jonas was aware of all these, he still tried his best to overcome these "instincts" with courage.
In the process of escaping, Jonas kept transmitting memories of happiness to Gabriel, to soothe him, to keep him going, because Jonas knew that if anything were to happen to Gabriel during the journey, he himself would hot have the courage, the will power to continue, thus reflecting what the speaker said in his poem “I need the courage for my companion to think positively."
During the journey, Jonas also sprained his ankle, and had some injuries, making riding on the bicycle very arduous and excruciatingly painful for him. However he kept encouraging himself to carry on, to reach Elsewhere successfully, because of the great courage he had, he managed to cycle across many mountains covered in thick blankets of snow. What Jonas was experiencing then was is exactly the same way as how the speaker described, “ I need the courage to overcome my pain”. As he approached the hill with the sled, Jonas began to summon all courage he had, that no matter what, he had to succeed, to face whatever challenges that lay before him, on the route to happiness. He had this thinking” I need the courage to convince myself to do something I have to prepare myself for any thing that comes up!”
As Jonas constantly thought about how nice it would be if he really made it to Elsewhere with Gabriel, and constantly reminding himself how painful life in the community had been, and how mean and emotionless the people had been. By always thinking of this, Jonas reinforces the courage needed for he and Gabriel to make it to Elsewhere. Jonas does not know how they will get to elsewhere, or even where Elsewhere is, but he knows that he cannot simply sit back and allow Gabe to be killed and the community to persist in this Sameness environment.
Lonely I partly adapted from Skunkredhair Skunkie
Lonely I, with my tears,
Lonely I, sorrow and hate,
Lonely I, is this my fate?
Lonely I, by myself in this queer room
Lonely I, with no choice but to submit myself to this doom
Lonely I, away from the emotionless community
Lonely I, away from my childhood friends
Lonely I, no one to understand me
Lonely I, no one whom I can convey my thoughts
Lonely I, pain in me
Lonely I, till I escape this community
This poem is about a guy who is unhappy living in his own community, unhappy with what he has to do everyday; upset with the fact that everybody around him is willingly submitting to the reality that the community is colorless and monotonous.
In the first stanza, the speaker regards his living environment as dark, boring, and everyday as uneventful as every other day. He despises his community, wanting to change his future, to live in another place with freedom, with people and things around him to bring color in his life. From his tone, we can tell that the speaker is extremely fed up with the fact that he has to continue staying in his community, he expresses extreme hate. He cries to relieve his frustration, his loathing for the community. If one really hates the place he lives in, one would feel extremely depressed, and cross, that life is meaningless and such a failure, which is exactly what the speaker is feeling in the poem.
In the second stanza, the speaker hates to be alone in a room all by himself, different from the rest of the community, isolated from his friends. He knows that he has no choice, and that it is imminent to do this everyday, he despises what he has to do and wishes to change the surroundings, to bring about change in his living environment.
In the third stanza, he seems to be the only one who has emotions, while the others do not, even his childhood friends. He tries to tell the people around him what he is feeling, to express his discontentment and hate but nobody ever seems to know what he is trying to say. He feels that his not being able to communicate his thoughts is very torturous. The people seem to be avoiding him, filling him with sadness and anger, making him have the desire to escape his living environment.
This speaker’s situation is exactly the same as that of Jonas. In The Giver, certain duties require isolation; an example is that of Jonas’s, he receives his training away from the majority of the people. To gain knowledge and wisdom, for instance is to separate oneself from those without such abilities.
Jonas has to be in isolation, because he possesses an ability that the others in the community do not have, the ability to see colors, and the ability to feel. This is in part because learning requires solitary reflection, and in part because it is hard to identify with anyone who doesn’t share the same wisdom.
He tried putting his palm on Lily’s back, to transmit a memory of roaming elephants that once existed in the community to her. However, she immediately complained that Jonas was hurting her. In another moment, Jonas tried transmitting a happy memory to Asher, and he too complained that Jonas was hurting him. After he was chosen to be the receiver, Jonas's friends gradually left him, as they could not understand his thoughts and actions. This tells us that not many people in the community do not have feelings and are unwilling to accept new things, that seem incredulous to them. This identifies with the speaker, when he was furious that nobody understood him, and he had to be left all by himself.
After Jonas watched his father release the newborn twin unemotionally, he realized that the people in this community do not treasure life, do not know the real meaning of life and were cruel. He could no longer live in a community with people who do not feel anything, nor understand him. he could no longer tolerate the rigid and unreasonable rules set in the community, such as having to apologize after making a very trivial mistake, having to thank one for his instructions. he was sick and tired of all these Sameness. He wanted to have choices extremely badly. he wanted to wake up one day and be able to decide even the most rudimental things like what he wanted to eat. He needed to go somewhere where his transmitted memory exists.
Hence, when the giver discussed plans on escaping the community with him, Jonas was extremely happy and excited, because he no longer had to face the emotionless people in the community, who do not understand him at all. Jonas’s thinking is exactly the same as the speaker as the speaker said that he would be in pain till he escapes the community. Being isolated also increases the pain suffering; with no one to share the weight, the burden is much greater, hence making Jonas feel the pain in him.
Pain In Pleasure by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A THOUGHT ay like a flower upon mine heart,
And drew around it other thoughts like bees
For multitude and thirst of sweetnesses;
Whereat rejoicing, I desired the art
Of the Greek whistler, who to wharf and mart
Could lure those insect swarms from orange-trees
That I might hive with me such thoughts and please
My soul so, always. foolish counterpart
Of a weak man's vain wishes ! While I spoke,
The thought I called a flower grew nettle-rough
The thoughts, called bees, stung me to festering:
Oh, entertain (cried Reason as she woke)
Your best and gladdest thoughts but long enough,
And they will all prove sad enough to sting !
This poem tells its readers how pleasure is associated with pain. The poet loved and had experienced happiness before. He had sweet thoughts like flowers but later bees came to draw the nectar out, signaling that when other things came along, that were not as pleasurable as the previous happy thought, the poet would feel pain as he gradually felt pain after the drawing of nectar. With pain, there would be pleasure, but without pain, there would be no pleasure.
Just like in The Giver, a memory of pain gives meaning to pleasure. In the community, life is monotonous, without joy, devoid of emotional variation because pleasurable things do not have the value that a memory of pain would give them. Pain is not felt as fully as it would be if the person experiencing it had the knowledge of pleasure. In Jonas’s community, everything was provided for the citizens, from the rudiments like food and clothes to each citizen’s mates and children that they will live with till they enter the house of childless adults. The citizens lived a life of comfort and have never experienced pain in their entire life; hence they do not understand the meaning of pleasure. No matter how delightful an experience is, one cannot experience the value of the pleasure it gives unless one has suffered before. Therefore, I can conclude that pain is associated with pleasure, with no pleasure there would be no pain and vice versa.
From the title, The Giver, and the cover picture, I thought the book was about the life of an elderly and respectable male teacher, whereby he tells his readers how he became interested in teaching and what challenges he faced while teaching. However, the first sentence of this book brought me to another world. As I continued reading into the chapters, the book brought me further confusion as I was still in the mindset of the life of the old man and moreover, the life of the people in the book did not apply to the life of us in this world. For example, the adults in this world were not allowed to choose their mates; thus fall in love. The children were not allowed to choose what school they wanted to go to; they were all not given choices, even the most rudimental things like what they wanted to eat or wear, everything was chosen for them. Just at this conclusion, I suddenly realized that all these people lived in a utopia and were not allowed to make any choices as everything was already laid out for them, for the citizens to lead a life of comfort, without pain; thus no true happiness.
As I continued reading, I was very amazed by the fact that the people willingly abided by the laws and not many had the courage to go against the committee of elders and was extremely satisfied with the current lives they were leading. Almost nobody applied for the change in jobs meticulously chosen by the committee, however, in our current world, adults keep switching jobs from time to time because they are unsatisfied with their working environment or their colleagues. In this utopia, everybody worked in peace and harmony that there were no office politics. To me, this fact is terrible queer. The fact that they paid so much attention to precision of language, that any wrong words used would result in them being hit with the discipline wand or having to apologise for the older ones also amused me. In our world, the words we use in our daily speech does not really matter, as long as we can get our feelings across and thoughts clearly expressed.
I was also very intrigued by the fact that all the people had no memories and a selected giver in the community held them all. When the giver was old enough, a receiver of memory would be selected to receive the memories on behalf of all the citizens. The giver could just put his hands on Jonas’s bareback, get the memory out and transfer the memory from himself to Jonas. This fact really puzzles me. In real life, we share our memories through conversations but in this case, the giver simply puts his hands on the receiver’s bare back and the memory would be transmitted. Also, Jonas could feel the pain, joy, heat, and chill of the memories, which is quite impossible in our present life. I am also glad that the committee of elders knew the importance of the memories as the community would not be perfect if the elders did not learn from past mistakes before making crucial choices for everybody, and therefore had somebody to bear the responsibility of keeping the memories for everybody.
I was extremely disturbed by the fact that the citizens were released; killed the lighter newborn twin, people who broke the rules more than thrice, made minor mistakes that alarmed the community and the elderly before they even died of natural causes. I think that it is very cruel of the community to do this even though they gave these people a very painless death. The community’s actions of releasing people so easily tells me that they have no feelings and do not treasure life. In our present world, people want to live for as long as possible, and convicts are given chances before they are sentenced to death.
I was very captivated when Jonas was escaping form his dwelling to elsewhere as I would not dare to do such a risky thing. Not only that, Jonas also brought along baby Gabriel who was scheduled to be released the following morning. Jonas has such courage and bravery, which I admire, to go against the rules, against the entire community in search of happiness, love and color in life. He was willing to forgo the comfort in his community and I greatly look up to him because of that fact. I particularly enjoyed the ending, which was ambiguous to certain people, because it made me think deeper, to peel more layers of the onion and reflect upon the story. The ending made me think of what would become of Jonas in the end, for a few days!
Overall, I feel that this book has really engaged all my senses, and is very enjoyable. However, I despise the living setting of all the citizens as they lead such colorless lives without any choices and I would never dream of living in such a utopia.